


My Sincere Apologies

by BarbaraKaterina



Series: FrostIron Bingo '19 [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Ficlet, FrostIron Bingo 2019, Getting Together, M/M, no books were harmed during the making of this fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-20
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-09-19 03:10:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20324119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarbaraKaterina/pseuds/BarbaraKaterina
Summary: Loki knows Tony Stark is attractive, and he knows Tony Stark always has a different girl on his arm. It's not like it bothers him. Really, it doesn't. But when it all starts happening right next to him in the library, well, that's taking things a bit too far, isn't it?(This story is finished, in spite of AO3 not letting me set the final number of chapters.)





	1. Square I2: Setting: library

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is me completing the Frostiron Bingo Secret Challenge. This particular chapter is square I2: Setting: library.
> 
> It’s gonna be a short fic, but chaptered because bingo rules.
> 
> From the little I know about US schools, morals and PDA standards, what happens in this chapter might not really be imaginable there, so imagine a school elsewhere. I can certainly imagine something like that happening in out school library quite easily, if it was big enough to have proper nooks, that is.

The library was sacred.

No, really. Loki was not religious, and in fact many - especially Odin - would say being irreverent was in his nature, but the library was different.

Loki never pulled any of his tricks in the library.

It was the one place where you could find him behaving like a model student.

Today, however, it was different.

He sat there, doing his best to keep to his usual quiet and respectful library behaviour, but...well.

Tony Stark was sitting just next to him, and Tony Stark had some girl in his lap, and the sounds they were making were just, you know, distracting.

Let alone when Loki forgot himself and actually looked at them and saw where Stark’s hands were.

They were sitting in a relatively hidden nook, no one else in sight - the reason why this was Loki’s usual workspace, and no doubt also the reason why Stark chose it for his...tryst.

The girl moaned particularly loudly, and Loki just couldn’t take it any more.

He cleared his throat loudly. When that got no reaction, he said in an angry whisper: “Could you at least _tone it down_? It’s really hard to work in this.”

Stark unglued his mouth from the girl long enough to tell him: “Just listen to some music. You want to borrow my headphones?”

Loki gave him a scathing look. He couldn’t work while listening to music - it distracted him - but as Stark went back to making out and paying him no more mind, Loki did rummage in his bag to find the neglected contraption and searched for something instrumental on his phone. Surely it was bound to be better than the moaning from next to him.

Ah. Instrumental Study. That sounded promising.

Loki was actually able to concentrate on his reading for a while after that...until the table started to move rhythmically.

He raised his eyes from his reading, highly alarmed, but no, thankfully Stark was not actually shagging the girl against the table. The table moved due to the rhythmic movements of his hand - which, really, wasn’t that much better when you thought about it, so Tony did his best not to.

“Are you joking right now?” He whisper-shouted angrily, tearing his headphones off. “Seriously? In a library?”

Stark merely rolled his eyes at him. “What,” he said, “are you jealous?” He smirked. “No worries, I can pencil you in right after, just wait a moment.”

Loki fought his blush with all of his power, but he was afraid it wasn’t quite enough. Angry - no, livid, furious - he got up, stuffing all of his books into his bag and heading out with long strides.

He stopped as soon as he was out of sight, to calm down a little and give him embarrassment some time to pass.

It did (a little), but his anger did not. He could deal with a bit of making out, but this was really taking things too far. Stark thought he could do whatever he wanted just because fo who he was, or rather who his father was, and Loki decided it was his duty to teach the man a lesson.

He realized he was just on the other side of the bookcase from Stark, which, really, was an opportunity he couldn’t quite pass up.

He carefully looked around himself. There was no one in sight, so he checked once more that yes, the shelves were built in such a way to be protected, with tiny overhanging roofs on their tops. Stark didn’t have any books out. And Loki remembered, from their fire safety exercise, that sprinklers in the library were carefully localized to minimize the damage. Nothing bad was going to happen, but Stark was going to get a _a cold shower_.

He secured his own books, dragged over a chair, stood on his tiptoes - thanking his mysterious genetics for being so tall - leaned over the shelf, and held a lighter up to the fire detector.

And then he power walked out as the alarm sounded and water began to sprinkle on Stark’s head.


	2. Square I5: Character: Frigga

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crime...and Punishment.

Frigga was giving Loki a disappointed look.

Really, he sometimes thought that he would willingly go though any kind of torture that could exist in the world just to avoid his mother giving him one of these, and yet he always seemed to end up in situations where he merited it.

“Really, Loki,” she said. “I know you like your jokes, but in a _library_?”

Loki’s guilt intensified. He should have known that would be the main issue - he’d inherited his ‘religion’ from his mother, after all.

“I checked the books were all safe before I triggered it,” he reassured her.

She frowned at him. “You can never be completely sure. And the wetness permeates the air, making it easier for mold to set in-”

“It’s air-conditioned! The air is constantly too dry!” Loki defended himself.

Frigga sighed. “Why did you do it?” She asked him firmly, giving him an intent look.

Loki thought about an excuse for a moment, but really, there was no reason not to tell the truth. And he had always been bad at lying to his mother. “Tony Stark was there,” he began, “making out with some girl, and they were sitting right next to me!”

Frigga blinked, seeming surprised. “And why did that bother you so much?”

It was actually a little difficult to remember why it had been so unbearable, but Loki did remember that it absolutely was. “Well...they were being _very_ loud,” he said a little lamely. “And rude!”

Now Frigga frowned again. “Rude?” There was a trace of worry in her tone now, and Loki internally cringed, knowing he couldn’t but reassure her now, because she was definitely imagining something much worse than what had happened.

“Well he...I asked him to stop and he...he asked me whether I wanted him to make out with me too,” Loki admitted, blushing.

Frigga gave him a knowing look. “And did you?”

Loki’s blush went bright crimson. “What?” He cried indignantly. “I’m not- that’s not- I-”

Frigga looked at him kindly, waiting until his mortified excuses petered out. “Under normal circumstances, you’d have simply left if they bothered you so much,” she said. “To have provoked you to actually put books at risk, it must have been something extreme. So, were you jealous?”

Loki squirmed. “It’s not that,” he insisted. “It’s just that… Stark is smart, all right? I know he is, and I don’t know why he has to make such an idiot out of himself.”

“Hmm. Smart, is he? I remember you talking about him - you have maths with him, if I remember correctly?”

“And biology,” Loki confirmed. “And he’s...well, he’s really good. The best in class in maths, definitely, and…” Loki didn’t like admitting it, but sometimes you just had to own up to things: “Probably in biology, too.”

Frigga hummed. “And do you see him with girls often?”

“All the time!” Loki exploded. “It’s like - I mean, he could do so much, but he seems to waste all of his time like that, you barely see him without a girl, really, and...and…” He trailed off when he saw the new, even more knowing look Frigga was giving him now. “It’s not like that!” He defended himself.

“Loki,” Frigga said, and she was still smiling but there was also firmness in her voice, “either you endangered books for no good reason...or you are more interested in Tony Stark than you wish to admit. One of these has to be true. And you should know your punishment will be proportionate to the reason why you did this, so think about your answer carefully.”

Loki wished Earth would just swallow him up.

“If, hypothetically, I said I might be just a tiny bit interested in Tony,” he muttered, “what would the punishment be?”

Frigga smiled at him. “Why, I would ask you to go and talk to him and apologize properly tomorrow, of course! You need to understand that jealousy is a problem on your side, darling, and not something you can punish others for.”

Loki grimaced and was about to declare that he didn’t care about that stupid boy a whit, anyway, so he was certainly not about to do _that_, but then Frigga said with an even sweeter smile: “Of course, if you didn’t have any actual reason for endangering those books...I’ll contact the school and make sure they don’t allow you inside the library for another year.”

It was then that Loki decided that his mother, against all expectations, was the most evil member of his family.


	3. Square I3: Trope: High School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki does his penance. It doesn't go the way he expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Square I3: Trope: High School (though that was this whole fic really, but still).

Loki spent the whole night thinking about how he’d approach Tony. They didn’t have any classes together that day, so his best chance was lunch, but that also made it incredibly public. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the other boy’s schedule (_See, Mother! I’m not as hopeless as you believe!_ He couldn’t help thinking), so it wasn’t like he could orchestrate any ‘accidental’ running into him in front of a classroom.

So unless fate was merciful to him - and when was it ever? - it would have to be lunch, which just spelled embarrassment.

However, as soon as Loki set foot into school that day, Tony was on him. And not the way he expected.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry I got you into trouble,” he was saying. “It’s just that I was going to some stupid dinner with my dad afterwards and he took issue with my wet clothes and he dragged school into it, but I swear I didn’t snitch! Can I make it up to you in any way?”

Loki stared at him with a raised eyebrow. “_You_ are apologizing to _me_?” He clarified.

“Well yeah, I mean, snitching on you would have been a major dick move,” Tony pointed out. “So I just wanted you to know that I, you know. Didn’t.”

“Didn’t you?” Loki couldn’t help asking.

“No!” Tony insisted. “But after Dad went to school all pissed off, they pulled the security camera feed, and well, there you were, so there was really no getting out of it.”

“Did the cameras also show you basically having sex in the library?” Loki asked pointedly, unable to help himself.

“No, that’s just the thing: they can’t see into that little nook!” Tony’s enthusiasm receded a bit at seeing Loki’s face, and he added a little awkwardly: “I guess I should apologize for that, too, but in my defence, have you _seen_ that girl?”

Loki grimaced. “Right,” he said, and turned abruptly and headed to his locker.

“Wait!” Tony called after him, running a little to keep up with his long steps. People were beginning to turn - Tony was one of the most popular kids at school, and him _running_ after someone was certainly extraordinary - and really, this was the last thing Loki needed.

“Leave me alone, Stark,” he muttered.

“You don’t believe me that I didn’t snitch?” Stark asked, offended.

Loki shrugged. “I don’t care,” he muttered, finally arriving at his locker, which was at least a bit out of the way of all the people. “I got into trouble either way, didn’t I?” He remembered he was still supposed to apologize if he wanted to be allowed inside the library again, and almost groaned aloud.

“Like I said, can I make it up to you in any way?” Stark asked. “I’d offer you that date again, but you don’t look like you’d exactly appreciate it.”

Loki scoffed. “You didn’t offer me a date yesterday, Stark, you offered to let me get in line for a quick make out in a library.”

He only realized he’d said too much when Stark blinked and then asked slowly: “Wait...so you’d prefer a date?”

Loki didn’t reply, stuffing his textbooks into his bag and trying to be done as soon as possible.

“I’m...I’m totally open to that,” Stark assured him, and Loki sighed.

“Out of guilt for getting me caught? No thanks,” he said. “Look, I’m supposed to apologize to you - apparently, risking precious books in a _fit of jealousy_,” he made it very obvious how ridiculous he thought the notion, “is not appropriate and you didn’t deserve it, or whatever. So. I’ve apologized, you’ve apologized, all debts are wiped and we can forget that whole fiasco, all right?”

“All right,” Stark slowly nodded, and then smirked, “so does that mean I can ask you out without you thinking it’s just out of a sense of guilt?”

Loki raised his eyebrows. “Why would you want to?” He asked suspiciously.

Stark laughed. “Dude, are you serious? Have you _seen_ yourself?” Loki blinked in surprise as Tony gave him a once-over, but the boy wasn’t done. “Not to mention, that thing with the sprinkler was fucking inspired, and between you and me, I totally deserved it.”

A smile was slowly spreading over Loki’s face. “Fine,” he said. “I suppose we could go out. And if you see me home afterwards, you can explain to my mother how you totally had it coming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you who thought Tony was going to be pissed...well he might have been, if, you know. It wasn’t _Loki_ who did this to him. (And also if he wasn’t pissed at Howard more.)


End file.
